First, they’ve got to find paid parking around the county Civic Center on Montgomery Street in downtown Syracuse. Since on-street parking is at a premium, chances are they’ll have to use a parking garage a couple of blocks away.

Then, once they’ve walked from the garage to the Civic Center, they’ve got to make their way up 15 floors to the elections office.

“It’s probably the most inaccessible board of elections office in the state of New York,” said Ed Ryan, the Democratic elections commissioner.

Not for long. The county plans to move its elections office to a building at 1000 Erie Blvd. W. next spring. The new location has a parking lot with 40 spaces — all free to use.

The county Legislature voted unanimously Tuesday to borrow $400,000 to buy and renovate the building. The county is purchasing the vacant 25,000-square-foot building from the estate of Duane Krull for $335,000, its assessed value, and will spend $65,000 on renovations.

The new site will not only house the election board’s administrative offices, but also its 300 new optical scanning voting machines, most of which will get their first use in the primary elections Tuesday. The machines, which cost $3 million, are being stored in a warehouse the county rents at 6361 Thompson Road in East Syracuse.

In addition to the new site being more convenient for the public, consolidating the elections office with its storage facility will be a time-saver for elections personnel. The new voting machines must be tested and their backup batteries charged every quarter, Republican Elections Commission Helen Kiggins said. Two elections workers — one a Republic and one a Democrat — must be present whenever that maintenance is done, and the round trip from downtown to the Thompson Road warehouse takes 45 minutes, she said.

County officials said payments on the $400,000 in bonds that will be sold to pay for the move will be about the same as the $4,000 a month it costs to rent the Thompson Road warehouse.

It’s too late to register to vote in the Sept. 14 primary elections. But there’s still time to register and be eligible to vote in the Nov. 2 general election. You can register in person through Oct. 8 at your county’s board of elections. Mailed-in registration forms must be postmarked no later than Oct. 8. To vote, you must be a United States citizen, 18 years old, and reside at your present address at least 30 days before the election.